A senior climate aide for Harris appears to be softening Vice President Kamala Harris’s previously unconditional support for fracking, a practice she opposed in 2019 when she promised to ban it, raising a key issue in the must-have state of Pennsylvania, where the fracking industry is a big revenue generator. The apparent change highlights criticisms from detractors who argue that Harris is merely an empty political figure willing to say or do whatever it takes to secure election. Nearly half (48 percent) of Americans believe that Harris simply says what she thinks people want to hear, while only 36 percent feel she expresses her true beliefs, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll.
Camila Thorndike, Harris’s climate engagement director, informed Politico last week that Harris no longer supports land leases for fracking. Previously, Harris had praised the Inflation Reduction Act, which included provisions to expand fracking leases. Harris cast the bill’s tie-breaking vote in the Senate. President Joe Biden later signed the bill. “Just to be clear, Vice President Harris hasn’t said anything that the administration hasn’t already said,” Thorndike told Politico. “She is not promoting expansion [of fracking leases]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking and the fact that anyone could look up is that the IRA required leases, and that was not something that she promoted.”
During the 2019 presidential campaign, Harris said “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” That comment was walked back five years later on CNN during an interview with Dana Bash. Harris claimed she never was in favor of banning fracking. “I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020,” she told Bash. “That I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.” Nobody in Pennsylvania appears to know what Harris truly believes about fracking or what she would do if she wins in November.
Eliminating fracking in Pennsylvania would result in significant job losses and a decrease in state revenue. According to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, approximately 2,000 landowners receive royalties from leasing their properties for natural gas wells. These royalties contribute to taxes that provide local municipalities with funding for public schools, police departments, and conservation projects. The Washington Post reported that fracking generated $3.2 billion in state and local tax revenue, with royalty payments exceeding $6 billion. A study by FTI Consulting in 2022 found that around 121,000 jobs for Pennsylvania residents are tied to the fracking industry.
“Pennsylvania is a significant state in the Democrat’s Blue Wall strategy to prevent former President Donald Trump from completing the greatest comeback in American political history. Most surveys show Harris holds a slight lead over the former president but within the margin of error,” Breitbart News reported.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.